Bleeding Out
by as-oursilversea-rises
Summary: Riley always felt at peace sitting in her father's truck with her legs dangling over the side, swinging her canvas shoe covered feet back and forth. The air was cool and all around her, everything was calm. She should've known it would all be destroyed within a matter of minutes.


**Disclaimer: **I do not own _The Walking Dead_, nor do I own "I For You" by The All-American Rejects.

_Say the words I cannot say  
__Say them on another day  
__Fragile words like these will cut your tongue  
__Was I good enough, was I bad enough  
__When I wanted more, yeah, you had enough  
__But nobody's gonna try for you  
__Nobody's gonna do like I for you_

Lacey watched peacefully from the back of her father's old pickup truck as the sun descended from the sky. The colors in the sky melted into each other, perfectly ranging from various hues of pinks and oranges. Lacey always felt at peace sitting in her father's truck with her legs dangling over the side, swinging her canvas shoe covered feet back and forth. The air was cool and all around her, everything was calm. Her father wasn't arguing with her uncle, for once. The two of them were like children; her father said it was always that between them. Lacey didn't mind the constant quarrelling all the time but it was nice to hear nothing but the crickets in the grass and the river rushing from half a mile away.

She closed her heavy eyelids. She wasn't tired but at the same time she wanted to curl up into a ball and fall asleep for the rest of eternity. With everything that'd been going on lately, it didn't seem like such an awful idea.

She wondered sometimes, what fi she hadn't been at her father's cabin that week? What if she'd spent an extra day or two with her mother in the city? Lacey knew for certain that her mother would not of called the cabin if she hadn't been there. Lacey's parents couldn't care less about each other and most of the time, it made her sick.

Lacey opened her eyes again and looked back up to the sky. Judging by the sun's place at the horizon, it was around quarter to nine. Lacey loved these nights, when the sun still lit up her little Georgian world until the night hours rolled in. Everything around her was dim, as the vibrant colors started to fade into darker tints. The sky transformed from pink and orange to lilac. Soon it would be ark blue, with only the stars for luster.

The air was cool and calm. It was moments like these that Lacey missed most about spending only weekends at her father's house during the school year. Her parents had never actually been married and had split up before Lacey had spoken her first words so Lacey had never held any concept of her parents' relationship but Lacey was still nauseated at the amount of hostility each of her parents used when speaking the other's name, which wasn't all too often to begin with. Lacey was never one of those kids who dreamt of getting her parents back together. Sure, it might've been nice to have one Christmas with both of the people she loved instead of alternating houses and maybe she would've liked being able to wish them a happy anniversary but Lacey had learned from a young age that her mother and father despised each other and there would never be much she could do to change that so she didn't. She spent the school year living in Atlanta with her mother, visiting her father in the northern part of Georgia over the weekends just to return to her mother's on Sunday afternoon. It was a hassle going back and forth but Lacey didn't mind. She could never decide which she preferred, the city or the mountains. It was times like these though—when the breeze was blowing softly on her skin and the smell of fresh air pushed away every dark thought that had ever occurred to her—that made her lean towards the north Georgian mountains.

Lacey had learned from a young age that nothing good ever lasts and unfortunately, she wasn't sure she could fall asleep forever right there, right then. She'd be interrupted by reality at some point, and Lacey—even though she was only ten years old—knew reality wasn't something she wanted to shy away from.

The small girl concentrated on the crickets. When you really listened to them, they could be as loud as a symphony in a concert hall. Lacey liked the simplicity of the small creatures. Simplicity was good.

She should've noticed the presence long before she did. By the time she contemplated the meaning behind the low groan she heard, only a few yards behind her, she knew she was in trouble.

She was almost afraid to turn around. She'd heard about the monsters, heard about what they did. She'd watched the news broadcast with her father. She'd talked to her mother on the phone about it. Her father and uncle were in the house at that very moment, rummaging around for whatever else they thought they might need for the trip to Atlanta, where everyone had been advised to go. But Lacey had no idea what she would face when she turned around.

Another groan. It was louder, coming right for her. Lacey wondered quickly if she was imagining it but she knew she didn't have much time to wonder on the idea. Slowly, cautiously, she turned her head over her shoulder. Surely enough, someone was there. Their eyes, glinted with repulsiveness, looked anything but human. The skin that looked to be barely clinging to their bones had been tarnished to a faint gray-green. Lacey was surprised she hadn't smelled the walking corpse before she'd heard it. Judging by what she knew of lifeless bodies—which living with two hunters, was a fair amount—she could tell that the carcass had been dead for a good number of days. It must've been, not only based on the obvious state of it's body but there was no other way that it could've walked all the way to her neck of the woods.

The monster was moving slowly, like a cat creeping up on a mouse, but it was anything but guileful, with it's outstretched arms and constant groaning. Lacey had never been more fearful in her life but she'd somehow managed to keep from screaming, rather from managing to keep her head or just not being able to muster enough air from her lungs to let out a scream, she wouldn't admit.

Lacey was able to gather together enough of her knowledge on hunting to know that if she moved suddenly, the creature would only come faster. She had to be slow and quiet. There was one problem though: she couldn't move.

She could tell the color had drained from her face, making her as pale as the monster standing before her. She took a small breath in through her nose. She hadn't realized that she'd stopped breathing. Her hands moved shakily as she gripped the edge of the truck bed, preparing to swing off and fly into the house, into the safety of her father. She swallowed heavily. As far as she knew, the creature hadn't noticed any of her movement and was still an appreciable six feet away, but closing in on her. She had about ten seconds to gather enough courage to move.

She took one last quivery breath and jumped off of the ruck bed, making dirt cloud around her feet. As previously predicted, at Lacey's precipitous action, the creature hurled itself towards her. She made a sound in the back of her throat that might've been a yelp but any ears excluding her own failed to hear it.

Lacey stumbled to start running towards the house, which was a mere distance away minutes ago but had suddenly seemed miles away thanks to the circumstances. Lacey could hear the creature sprinting towards her, or at least attempting to. It sounded like staggering but Lacey wasn't about to underestimate the creature's increasing speed.

She was inches from the doorway, inches from what might've been her safe haven, when a cold hand gripped her upper arm harshly, pulling her backwards. It was then that Lacey screamed. A bloodcurdling scream echoed throughout the forest as Lacey's body plummeted towards the creature. She struggled against the firm grasp it had on her as it tied to get a good hold of her. Tears streamed down her face and her throat felt like it was closing in on itself. She was sobbing helplessly, and had given up on all hope when the creature's body became limp, it's grip remaining on her arms but suddenly becoming not so firm. It's head rolled forward over her shoulder and all of its weight was pushed against her, causing her to topple. She was sure this was it when the monster fell on top of her body. She'd been positive her short-lived life was at its end until she felt the creature's heavy body being hauled off of her.

Two strong hands took her by the shoulders and pulled her up carefully before she was drawn into a suffocating hug. The familiar smell of pine needles and cigarette smoke overcame her senses. She lost every last amount of energy she had in her body as she let herself fall into the body enveloping her. Large, comforting hands rubbed her back and she sobbed into his shoulder.

"It's alright sweetheart," he said, his voice low and gruff but consoling to her ears. "You're alright."

_Hold me like you never could  
__I'll hold you like I said I would  
__Air or light won't breathe nor shine between  
__With your feather lips, yeah you fly away  
__Well I hope they come back down someday_

Lacey found herself wrapped up in a blanket when she awoke. She barely remembered falling asleep but the feeling of cold dead hands wrapped around her arms were all but forgotten. She didn't move from where she sat in the moving pickup truck between her father and her uncle, leaning sleepily into her father's side. Her uncle was driving, she could tell by the speed. Her uncle always drove faster than her father, no matter what the speed limit.

Lacey was about to say something, to ask a question, when her uncle spoke first, his voice sharp and forceful. "I don't give a shit where Courtney is and I ain't about to hunt the bitch down." He wasn't yelling, but he was obviously angry.

Lacey didn't stir. She closed her eyes, pretending to still be asleep.

"I know exactly where the fuck she is. I just wanna check up on 'er. It ain't like we won't be in the neighborhood," her father said back, his voice equally tranquil though anger was evident in his tone. "I ain't even gonna fuckin' talk to 'er."

"It ain't happenin' baby brother," her uncle affirmed, changing lanes.

Her father sighed exasperatedly. "Goddammit, Merle," he said, his voice louder, almost making Lacey jump. He turned to look out the window, pausing for a moment, before looking back to his brother. "What the hell am I supposed to tell Lacey?" he queried, his voice once again hushed. "That's my kid's mother. Do we just drive by her house? Pretend she ain't there?"

"Hell," Merle sneered, smirking. "Now yer talkin'."

"Merle, that's my kid's mother," he repeated, slower this time.

Merle scoffed. "Some mother she's been."

"What the fuck do you know about mothers anyways?"

Merle looked to his brother, and then back to the road. The speed of the car was increasing gradually. "I know they ain't s'pposed to do the things she's been doing. How the hell do you expect her to raise yer kid with all the shit she does? Hell, you know she's doin' it and that don't make you no better than she is."

Lacey felt her muscles stiffen. Sure, her father hated her mother more than anything but her uncle was a different story. Lacey'd never seen anybody hold so much hate towards another person than her uncle towards her mother. It was revolting.

"Look, Daryl," Merle continued after his brother didn't respond. "If ya see 'er, you go an' do whatever it is you've got in mind but I ain't goin' nowhere with the bitch and I ain't waitin' around either."

Merle's brother nodded stiffly, staring straight ahead. It was sometime past midnight, he was sure. The radio had said to head to the nearest major city, also known to him as the residence of Courtney O'Connell.

He knew he wasn't getting any sleep tonight and he was done staring at the goddamn dashboard. He wanted to drive but he doubted Merle would let him, especially after that short-lived feud. Things had gotten nastier between the two before but Courtney—though Daryl hated her with everything in him—was a touchy subject.

Courtney and him had started out as kids, just running around the woods, daring each other to eat bugs. She lived with her folks just a little over a mile away from him and Merle. There aren't a whole lot of kids out in the Georgian mountains so his options of friends were limited and Courtney, even as a little girl, happened to be a pretty ballsy chick. Besides, even if he'd wanted to get rid of her, she wouldn't leave him alone. Since they were no older than five she'd been walking behind him like a little puppy dog. She proved she wasn't going nowhere when they started going to school and Daryl discovered that all girls were gross and were infected with a gut-churning disease known as cooties. He'd done everything he could think of to scare little pig-tailed Courtney away but the girl wouldn't budge so he'd come to the conclusion that he would just have to learn to deal with her. As they got older, the childish disliking came to an end. Eventually they started dating, if you could call sneaking into the janitor's closet during geometry class for a quickie dating. They kept the relationship up throughout they're remaining years of high school but they hardly considered it a relationship, as each of them was constantly seeing different people. But everyone knew Daryl and Courtney were a thing, they'd always been a thing, and everyone presumed they would always be a thing. Even after school, though the two had started to grow apart, constantly arguing and 'breaking-up', they continued to see one another. And when Courtney found out she was pregnant a good ten years later, it was just the tip of the iceberg. Everyone was surprised it hadn't happened sooner. People questioned whether or not the baby belonged to Daryl for the entire nine months and when the child was born, they found out it was Daryl's blood that was pumping through that baby's veins. The entire town said Daryl wasn't father material. All you had to do to know that was look at his own father. Daryl knew he wasn't cut out for parenting but the moment he'd gotten the phone call saying he had a daughter, he was determined to give the child better than what he had.

Daryl lifted his head from where it had rested on the glass of the window and looked at the little blonde-haired girl leaning into his side. He reached towards her to brush a strand of loose hair behind her ear. She flinched at his touch.

"Lacey? You awake?" he questioned softly, shaking his head and holding back a smile.

She figured there was no use in pretending to be asleep any longer if she'd already been found out. She opened her eyes slowly, looking up at her father.

"How long have you been awake?" he inquired.

"Just a second," she lied, not wanting to admit she'd overheard her father and uncle arguing.

Daryl nodded and Merle glanced over at the small girl next to him for a second.

"How much longer until we get to Atlanta?" Lacey asked no one in particular.

"We're almost on the highway," Merle answered. "We'll be there shortly after that."

Lacey nestled into her father's side, pulling the blanket tighter around her. Her canvas shoes had already been kicked off of her feet. She pulled her legs onto the seat and curled up into a ball.

"You should go back to sleep," Daryl said, wondering how much his daughter had actually heard. He was no fool when it came to her lying to him but he didn't want to push anything, not after what had happened back at the house. He wasn't sure he'd be able to get over that. As her father, he was supposed to always be there to protect her. If he'd been a couple of seconds later, that monster would've gotten his little girl before he had the chance to put an arrow through it's head.

Lacey nodded and closed her eyes, attempting to void her mind of earlier occurrences. She wondered if she was handling her situation right. Maybe she was supposed to be freaking out, hyperventilating. Her mother always did tell her she was far too laidback, but Lacey didn't think there could be such a thing. _Wow_, she thought. _Guess I must really be crazy_.

At the feeling of his daughter's shoulders tensing, Daryl looked back to his daughter. Her breathing was heavy but controlled. He didn't know how she was handling herself when just hours ago she'd been on the verge of death. Merle teased him sometimes, saying the little girl had more guts than he did. Daryl always answered with a scowl but sometimes, times like right then and there, Daryl thought she was stronger than him. He'd been breaking for this girl since the day he'd found out she was his. He used to think this girl would be the end of him, but now he knew it was true because the next time anyone—anything, came close to hurting his baby girl, he'd hurl himself in front of her. Nobody was ever going to hurt Lacey.

Daryl bowed his head and kissed the top of her head.

If he didn't protect her, then who else would?

_Cause, nobody's gonna try for you  
Nobody's gonna do like I for you  
Somebody's getting by for you  
I don't bend, I just break in two  
Somebody like me  
I'd die for you_

* * *

**A/N: **I did previously post this chapter but my OC had a different name. I, however, decided to go with a different name because of its closer value to me personally. Thanks to any readers and please let me know what you think in the reviews :)**  
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